1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a battery pack which is a power supply unit used in various types of electronic products, and in particular, to a battery pack with a nondirectional terminal constituted so as to smoothly supply power regardless of a mounting direction.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, various types of electronic products including portable devices use battery packs, which are attachable to and/or detachable from the electronic products, as power supply units. Such a battery pack is constituted so as to be charged with electricity and thus reusable. A terminal is provided on a widest surface or narrowest side of the battery pack according to a shape of an electronic product or an attached and detached position of the battery pack. In the former case, the battery pack can be used in a portable terminal, a camcorder, etc. In the latter case, the battery pack can be used in a slim product such a digital camera, etc.
In order to constitute the battery pack, a battery cell and a charging circuit, etc. are built in upper and lower case frames formed of synthetic resin. Finally, the upper and lower case frames are fixed to each other using a process such as reciprocal supersonic fusion. The terminal is installed to expose a portion thereof outside the fused case frame so as to be connected to a connector terminal, which normally protrudes from a battery pack mounting portion of the electronic product.
The terminal of the battery pack has at least three individual terminals including a positive terminal, a negative terminal, and a ground terminal. The at least three individual terminals must be insulated from one other and are respectively connected to individual connectors of the connector terminal provided at the battery pack mounting portion of the electronic device.
However, the terminal of the battery pack is exposed from a specific portion of an outer surface of the battery pack. Thus, the battery pack must always be installed in a predetermined direction in the electronic product. As a result, users must find out in which directions battery packs having rectangular shapes are to be mounted in electronic products, in order to mount the battery packs in the electronic products.